Intel supercharges storage Atoms

Intel has tweaked a pair of Atoms meant for storage applications, giving them more cycles and support for newer memory.

The D410 and D510 single and dual core Atom processors were launched in the first quarter of this year and featured a 1.66GHz clock and DDR2 667/800 memory support. Intel twinned them with its 82801 IR I/O controller and suppliers such as Cisco, HP, La Cie, Netgear, QNAP, Synology and Thecus built small networked storage boxes for small business and consumers around them.

Now Intel has upped the clock speed to 1.8GHz with the D425 and D525 single and dual-core processors and given them support for DDR3 SODIMM (Double Data Rate 3 Small Outline Dual In-line Memory Modules) memory. They are still paired with the 82801 IR I/O controller.

Disk capacities are steadily increasing and the number of servers and their power in small businesses is likewise improving. The new Atoms will enable storage vendors to produce boxes which Dinesh Rao, Intel's Storage Group product line manager, describes as "low-power appliances that can innocuously sit on a desk or shelf" and that can keep up with the need to support more data being accessed by more users and applications.

They should also help the vendors produce better networked storage systems for homes although this must be a smaller market than the small biz one. Neither Seagate nor Western Digital are listed as Atom users and they ship a lot of networked storage product into consumers' houses. ®